WAILUKU, Hawaii >> A Maui man was sentenced to life in prison for the stabbing of a hotel housekeeper that left her partially paralyzed, the Maui News reported Thursday.

Krenston Ako-Kealoha, 22, of Kihei was ordered Wednesday to serve at least 15 years before being eligible for parole.

He pleaded no contest to second-degree attempted murder in the March 12, 2010, stabbing of a housekeeper who was cleaning a bathroom at the Worldmark Maui resort when she was attacked from behind.

Second Circuit Judge Rhonda Loo called the 62-year-old woman a helpless, unsuspecting victim.

“You stabbed her not once but six times in the neck area,” she said at Ako-Kealoha’s sentencing. “She’s three times your age, unarmed, not a threat to you.”

The stabbing left her paralyzed on her right side and unable to care for her elderly parents, said Deputy

Prosecutor Robert Rivera. She had to relearn how to talk, walk and sit up, he said.

“You caused her all this pain and all this grief, and I don’t know what you got out of it,” the judge said. “I hope a day does not go by that you don’t reflect on what kind of harm you put this woman through.”

Ako-Kealoha apologized in court to the victim, who did not attend the sentencing, and blamed the attack on his drug use.

His defense attorney, David Sereno, said the case is an example of what drugs and alcohol can lead to. He noted that when his client regained the ability to think clearly, he turned himself in to police.

“He isn’t this monster that a lot of people have made him out to be,” Sereno said